Game 6 - Thursday Afternoon, April 5th in Philadelphia
Record - 2-4, 4th place, 3 games behind the Mets
One Sentence Summary: Nick Pivetta looked great and Maikel Franco enjoyed a four-RBI day as the Phillies blanked the Fish in their home opener, 5-0.
What It Means: This is the first home opener the Phillies have won since 2011, which is also the last year they went to the playoffs. Coincidence?
What Happened: Franco fell a double short of the cycle, with his big hits being a two-run single in the first and a two-run home run (1) in the seventh. Pivetta allowed four hits in 5 2/3 innings while striking out nine.
Featured Card: I'm giving the nod to Pivetta over Franco for this post, and this is his latest card from the flagship Topps set.
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Field Report: And we were there! It was a cold day, but we managed to stay warm and the new Phillies knit hats we received certainly helped. Here are some of my thoughts/memories from the Phillies 2018 home opener:
- The giant baseball cards representing that game's line-up in Ashburn Alley are gone! This genuinely bums me out. The Phillies moved a bunch of stuff around during the offseason with Bull's BBQ now occupying the corner where there was a Wayback Burger stand the last few seasons. The Wall of Fame has taken over the wall where the giant baseball cards used to be and the Newsstands are no longer around either. There's a new, interactive section for kids in the back of Ashburn Alley where Bull's used to be. This looks like a lot of fun, but the lines were too long when we checked it out prior to the game.
- I picked up the new team-issued photo card set with Jake Arrieta and Carlos Santana occupying the top spots. I'll have a full post on the set soon. I also picked up the Topps retail Phillies team set.
- The Phillies paid tribute to Roy Halladay prior to the game with a moment of silence and video showing the final outs from his perfect game and playoff no-hitter.
- Eagles head coach Doug Pederson threw out the first pitch in a Halladay jersey, and he received the loudest cheers of the day.
- Gabe Kapler was resoundingly and loudly booed. He was booed in the pre-game introductions and he was booed when he removed Pivetta with two outs in the fifth.
- We appeared on Phan-A-Vision very early in the game and I'm claiming we were the first family to appear on the big screen this season. As Richie Ashburn used to say, "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story." We also stopped by the new Bull's location to say hello to Greg Luzinski on our way out.
Congrats on being the very first family on the big screen! I was set to take my son out of school early and go with him until we realized at the bus stop that he had an after school academic competition that he couldn't miss. Rather than sell his ticket for half-price on StubHub that morning, I used it ticket to walk through the gate a second time to get him a knit hat--first time I have ever done that at the major league level, although I have done it numerous times at minor league games.
ReplyDeleteI got my first Luzinski autographs of the season (and annual selfie with him as well), adding the 52nd and 53rd unique Bull cards to my collection. I have about a dozen more different Luzinski cards to try to get this season, so I'm going to have to hit quite a few games.
I hadn't noticed the absence of any newsstands since I fairly quickly found a stand to buy a program that also sold cards, DVDs, etc. Looking it up on phillies.com, I must have found the "Scorecards" stand behind Section 126, manned by the fellow who formerly ran the centerfield newsstand. Sad to see them go, but hopefully they keep this one for us old-timers. It was interesting to see the changes around the ballpark. When I have my kids with me, I will have to explore the right field kids area. It's sort of surprising, though, that it took the Phils this long to put in a kids mini-field; SF has had one since their stadium opened in 2000. It struck me as a very big area with not a lot of commerce involved, making me think it may get shrunk down at some point (like the Eagles got rid of their mini-field for kids too).
We just need a little better weather now....
The "fellow who formerly ran the centerfield newsstand" - I know exactly who you're talking about. He's always been really friendly to us and we were bummed he wasn't at his usually spot. We were happy to see him in the new Scorecards stand behind 126.
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